madeleine wrote:Death is an effect of the first sin as well.
this is actual the crux of my inquiry...the atonement should have removed this consequence of sin from mankind...if we inherited death from Adam then it should have been removed upon the atonement. That is to say the obvious, we should have inherited eternal life from Christ...but we did not...we only inherited the opportunity...an opportunity not afforded to us with the Adam situation.
madeleine wrote: It has been noted from the beginning that we still all die. Original Sin is not something you have, it is something you don't have. Adam and Eve lived in the immediate presence of God. If they had not sinned, their posterity would have continued to live in the immediate presence of God. But they did sin, and were removed from the grace of God.
Adam = unconditional and immediate removal from the grace of God - without exception or negotiation
Christ - conditional and eventual return to the grace of God
madeleine wrote:God did not leave us to this condition of separation from Himself. Immediately, constrictions were placed on Satan, what we call the proto-gospel. From that point, God continuously worked to bring us back to Himself, Perfectly achieved in Jesus Christ. We view the work of God among men, as described in the Old Testament, as Salvation History.
Beyond that, I think the difference in our views can be best expressed as how we view the status (or role) of Satan since the Cross. We understand that Satan is defeated, now. Christ is triumphant. We are called as Christians to behave as we believe. God allows Satan to act, but as Christians we believe the only power he has is the power we give him. The central reality to us is Jesus Christ. So our hope is in Christ, not in ourselves, or our own abilities.
agreed, but that all seems to be mostly unchanged from when Adam was in Eden.
madeleine wrote:The rest of your "LDS understanding" is difficult for me to comprehend. God does not desire that you to choose sin (the disease), in order to know a cure (Christ). It is where I note, LDS have corrupted scripture. We are called to live a life free from sin.
perhaps "choosing sin" is a bit exaggerated...but the intent is that we chose to be tested, to be tried, and we chose to be fallible so that we could improve and progress...so that we could grow in Christ...and being perfect in thought and deed would have done none of that.
So, we chose to participate just as now we choose to participate...God requires that we come to Him freely.
One can believe that God forced the chains of sin upon us or that we took them upon ourselves willingly, but the work remains the same...i believe it is more consistent with the nature and character of God that all things have been, are, and will be associated with this idea of "freely".